Ford Bronco poised for comeback as O.J. set to leave jail

By Mary Chapman, Chicago Tribune

August 11, 2017Updated: August 11, 2017 7:06pm

Photo: Ford /TNS

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Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of The Americas, announces that Ford will once again make its Ford Bronco midsize SUV on Jan. 9, 2017 in Detroit, Mich. Ford is bringing back the discontinued Bronco just as the man who made it famous is being released from jail. less

Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of The Americas, announces that Ford will once again make its Ford Bronco midsize SUV on Jan. 9, 2017 in Detroit, Mich. Ford is bringing back the discontinued Bronco just as the ... more

Photo: Ford /TNS

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This undated still image, taken from video and released by Xtreme Entertainment Group, shows O.J. Simpson trying to sell his infamous white Ford Bronco. Ford is bringing back the discontinued Bronco just as the man who made it famous is being released from jail. less

This undated still image, taken from video and released by Xtreme Entertainment Group, shows O.J. Simpson trying to sell his infamous white Ford Bronco. Ford is bringing back the discontinued Bronco just as the ... more

Photo: /AP

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File photo of the California Highway Patrol chasing O.J. Simpson. Ford is bringing back the discontinued Bronco just as the man who made it famous is being released from jail.

File photo of the California Highway Patrol chasing O.J. Simpson. Ford is bringing back the discontinued Bronco just as the man who made it famous is being released from jail.

Photo: AL SCHABEN /Los Angeles Times File

Ford Bronco poised for comeback as O.J. set to leave jail

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The connection seems almost mystical.

When O.J. Simpson was making Heisman moves at the University of Southern California, Ford Broncos were racing nearby in the Baja 1000. Following Simpson’s infamous slow chaseon national TV, the Bronco was discontinued. And now that the old running back is set to get out of jail Oct. 1, Ford is gearing up for an all-new Bronco.

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“It’s kind of funny that the Bronco and O.J. are being released at the same time,” said Thomas Broberg, editor and publisher of Bronco Driver magazine, noting that Simpson’s 11-season NFL career and the Bronco’s 11-year first generation were nearly concurrent.

For better or worse, the brands are inextricably bound. Some 95 million TV viewers — Super Bowl numbers — witnessed the June 17, 1994, police chase of Orenthal James Simpson in a white 1993 Bronco driven by his pal Al Cowlings in Southern California.

Originally a competitor to the roughshod Jeep CJ, the Ford Bronco spat mud for three decades from 1966 to 1996, when the infamous O.J. Simpson chase hastened its end. Five generations of the Bronco helped fuel the SUV craze in America, and 20 years after it left the Bronco to rot, Ford is rumored to be bringing it back for model year 2018 or 2019.

Since its acquisition last summer, that Bronco has been a popular draw at the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The museum expects even more interest once Simpson is freed this fall after serving nine years in the clink on kidnapping and armed robbery charges related to sports memorabilia. A replica of the SUV will be installed at a planned pop-up Simpson museum in Los Angeles.

Simpson and Cowlings owned matching Broncos; Simpson’s vehicle was stripped by law enforcement for evidence in the criminal trial of his ex-wife’s murder and no longer exists.

“The reality is that the Bronco name is, and forevermore will be, associated with O.J.,” said Michael Bernacchi, a marketing professor at the University of Detroit Mercy. “Whether it’s going to help or hurt Ford is hard to say.”

James Edwards, a 52-year-old truck driver who recently moved to Detroit, said that back in the day, he always wanted a Bronco. “There was something so basic about it that it was cool,” said Edwards, who drives a late-model Cadillac CTS. “I don’t care about it being associated with O.J., but I imagine he’d come up if I owned one.”

Some 24 years after the last Bronco iteration, Ford will introduce a new version in 2020. Few details are known, other than it will be similar in size to the Ford Ranger, and will have bonafide body-on-frame bones like the original. The last generation of the rough and rugged Bronco was based on the F-150 pickup truck. Introduced in 1966 to compete with small, four-wheel-drive SUVs, the Bronco’s first go-around lasted 30 years.

There remains widespread, almost folkloric belief that Simpson, after that surreal, prime-time cop chase on Interstate 405 and his acquittal the following year in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, essentially did in the venerable brand.

In all likelihood, however, Ford already had decided to kill the Bronco, which was never a huge seller for the manufacturer.

Between 1991 and 1996 the model’s share of Ford sales registered between 1.1 and 1.4 percent, according to Edmunds.com.

Built primarily to battle Jeep CJ models and the International Harvester Scout, the brawny Bronco was hailed by enthusiasts as a true off-roader that was also fun.

“Bronco had a good run. I’m surprised it took this long to bring it back,” Broberg said.

But the industry was moving away from two-door, two-row SUVs and toward family-friendly, four-door three-row vehicles like the Ford Expedition, which succeeded the Bronco. General Motors replaced the two-door Chevrolet Blazer with the four-door Tahoe.

“O.J. didn’t kill the Bronco,” said Jake Fisher, director of auto testing for Consumer Reports. “That style was on its way out before him.”

The only SUVs with two doors on the market are Jeep Wranglers and Range Rover Evoques. Both of those have four-door versions that sell relatively better, said Monica Favorite of Edmunds.com.

Still, Broncos from the Simpson years have held their value well, according to Kelly Blue Book, indicating either a lingering demand for big two-door SUVs, or demand borne of nostalgia.

As far as the upcoming Bronco’s concerned, Becky Sanch, Ford’s SUV communications manager, said Simpson is a nonfactor. “I’ve personally never heard a conversation about that subject. It’s not a topic of discussion.”

Ford is resurrecting the Bronco badge, she said, because “it’s a name that people recognize after all these years.”

Still, Bernacchi said the use of the nameplate is significant. “It’s not by accident. This vehicle, which probably won’t be much like the old one, and which never really sold well, could’ve been called anything. They’re using the Bronco name for some reason, and that reason has to be the connection to O.J.”

Whether Simpson affects demand, he said, will somewhat depend on whether he’s in the news in two years. It also depends on the extent to which prospective customers even know of the erstwhile NFL hall of famer, B-movie actor, and pitchman. The average age of midsize SUV buyers is between 45 and 54, according to Edmunds.com.

“Remember, when he gets out they’ll be replaying that chase and everything O.J.,” Bernacchi said. “All that will be back in the news more and more.”

While Simpson did help imprint the brand on the public’s consciousness, consumers have short attention spans, said consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow. “I think any sort of tarnish will be emotional, and that doesn’t last as long,” she said.

Still, images of him in an SUV around the time the new Bronco is unveiled could conjure negative associations, she said.

But if anything, Bronco’s connection to Simpson could promote sales. “We’re in an era today where it doesn’t seem to matter whether attention is positive or negative. When you think about the things that people are willing to do to get press — look at social media and all the reality shows — attention is worth more than money,” Yarrow said.

Constance Prater, a 46-year-old who lives in Grand Rapids, Mich., and shares with her husband a Chevrolet Equinox, said she doesn’t like Simpson but that if she liked the new Bronco and the price was right, she wouldn’t hesitate.

“Unless it was white,” she said with a chuckle. “That would probably be too much.”